Spider-Man Has Good Taste in Textbooks

Share

Spider-Man Has Good Taste in Textbooks

With the recent release of The Amazing Spider-Man (here's a discussion of some of the math and science in that movie), I thought it necessary to revisit one of the more exciting moments of my academic career:

Steve was my PhD adviser. Well, you can imagine my surprise when one day back in grad school I went to visit his office only to see the screenshot below taped outside his door:

Unremarkable, right? It's a screenshot of Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) doing his homework in Spider-Man 2. But look at the shelf. Now look at the second book from the top. If you've been steeped in the world of applied mathematics, this book will be immediately recognizable to you. It's the textbook authored by Steve called Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos.

This moment of discovery was incredible. My grad school adviser wrote a textbook used by a superhero! Applied math meets comics! What's not to love? Clearly nothing. I have explored this intersection multipletimes but nothing must compare to actually having your book used by a superhero in college.

And in case you're wondering the specifics of this scene, it takes place after Peter Parker disavows his superheroics and concentrates on his studies. It is 1:04:50 into the film.